He refused to take loyalty oaths. He called himself a "seeker" rather than a Christian.
He was probably the most controversial freethinker of his time.
And he was a Baptist.
That will come as a surprise to many people, who tend to think of today’s Baptists as the bedrock of the Religious Right. But many Baptists are returning to their roots.
Former President Carter, a Baptist who is a true friend of American Muslims, is helping independent denominations fashion a "North American Baptist Covenant" as a new evangelical presence.
And one of their first projects will be Muslim-Baptist dialogue.
"We need to repair the damage done by Baptists who made hurtful statements about Muslims in the past," Dr. A. Roy Medley, general secretary of the American Baptist Churches, told InFocus.
"If you believe in religious liberty, you must respect other religions. The best way to witness to your own faith is through humility and service," he said.
Medley has put out press releases disassociating his denomination from bigoted statements made by certain leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Along with the ABC, others participating in unity talks are the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Alliance of Baptists and denominations that are historically black.
All profess theology that is evangelical, but with strong social justice concerns. Predictably, Dr. Frank Page, the Southern Baptist president, has publicly denounced the new group as having a "left-wing, liberal" agenda.
(Carter left the Southern Baptists in 2000 because of what he termed their "increasingly rigid" beliefs.)
One person who sees the need for Muslim-Baptist dialogue is Dr. Rothang Chhangte, whose father headed the main Baptist federation in India.
She — like Medley — spoke of meeting with Indian, Bangladeshi and Lebanese Baptists who begged her to help stop inflammatory statements against Islam by Baptists in the United States.
"They all say the same thing — that it discredits Baptists in other countries, and even puts them at risk," she told InFocus. (Chhangte is the director for Ecumenical Formation in the American Baptist Churches and co-chair of the National Council of Churches Interfaith Commission.)
One Baptist who has already spearheaded Muslim-Baptist dialogue in his own community is the Rev. Hopeton Scott of the First Baptist Church in Bridgeport, Conn.
"After 9/11, we became aware of the need for dialogue. Frankly, I was blown away by the concern of Christians in the area for our Muslim neighbors," Scott said.
He set up a regular meeting of Christians, Jews and Muslims at Sacred Heart, a nearby Catholic college.
"It was like, what can we learn from each other? One person from each faith would speak on a topic. Then the facilitator would take questions from the floor," Scott told InFocus.
"We started on the first day of Ramadan," he said. "An Imam broke his fast with us and then led us in prayer. We talked about our common roots in the Abrahamic tradition. We also talked about how diverse we were, both in terms of race and class.
"When the word ‘Baptist’ is used, many people think of extremism," he said. "That’s what motivated me to take the lead in community interfaith work."
Medley spoke of the new Baptist group’s dream of dialogue with Muslims. "A small committee of six or seven of us will start meeting in the autumn to figure out how to do it right," he said. "Christian-Muslim relations are so important to our country and our world. If we need to, we’ll ask President Carter for advice."
That would certainly be appropriate. Carter not only defines Christian humanitarianism, he also carries on, in his defense of religious liberty for Muslims, the noble work of America’s first Baptist, Roger Williams.
Lawrence Swaim is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Freedom Foundation. He taught for eight years at Pacific Union College, and his academic specialties are American Studies and American literature. His column addresses current affairs from an American Christian and Interfaith perspective.
